Banks Track - Stoney Bay to Otanerito

Early Wednesday morning, we awoke to a rooster call and rose to get ready for the 6k walk to Otanerito. We hiked up the cliffs along the coast again and somehow missed the blowholes, but got some great pictures of the sea arch from high above! This was the least difficult of section of hiking thus far, a good warm-up for the afternoon ahead.

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Our lunch stop on day 2 was at Otanerito, the cutest cottage of them all (including a fridge stocked with bottled beer)! Chris cooked up some gluten-free pasta with tuna and tomatoes - interesting to meet another gluten intolerant hiking enthusiast so far from home! After a short lunch break, we got back on the trail for the final 10k leg back down to Akaroa.

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We started with a steep and never-ending climb through the bush – it felt just like you were deep in the Amazon jungle, minus the monkeys, frogs and bugs! I happened to be in the lead when we turned a corner and ran upon a poisoned possum in the road. Apparently they are the biggest pests in New Zealand, introduced by settlers long ago, but now outnumbering sheep and even people and known for destroying the vegetation. Possum traps are everywhere in the bush, but it is sad to see them killed because they’re still much cuter than the ugly possums we have at home!

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As the vegetation started to change, we realized we were finally nearing the top of the chasm! We tramped through what looked to be ‘hobbit land’ in the Red Birch forest and stopped for a snack break at what we thought to be ‘the saddle’. We finally did reach the summit and thought the hard part was over… until we began the super-long, super-steep tramp (sometimes walking backward!) down to Akaroa. Chris and Rachel were smart and had left their car near the track, so we took them up on their offer of a ride into town. After such a long 2-days, it didn’t even feel like cheating! Chris convinced us to go back to the Akaroa Fish Shop for some more well-deserved fish and chips.

From Collages

It’s just crazy to look back on the past 2 days and think about how many things fell into place to set us up for a once-in-a-lifetime hike! We owe so much to Geoff and Shelly for pointing us in the right direction and lending us their gear. We were also so fortunate that Chris and Rachel were our bunkmates. They were such a fun couple and there’s no one we would have rather been stuck in the middle of nowhere with! There is a certain amount of risk involved in trusting and opening up to other people… in NZ it seems we’re finding out just how much that risk can pay off!